1. Field of the Invention:
An identification tag assembly for luggage being transported by an air carrier or the like wherein the tag assembly includes a split construction comprising a plurality of separable tags at least some of which include coded indicia structured for mechanial reading thereof and representative of a unique alpha-numeric designation for identifying individual luggage pieces wherein such unique designation or number can be entered into a computer system prior to transport and handling and purged from the computer system upon a baggage piece being claimed by the owner at the destination thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
In the transportation industry, handling and identifying passenger baggage is an area which is recognized by the prior art as needing improvement. While problems associated with baggage handling and identification is not limited to the air travel industry, problems faced by the airlines in this area are particularly difficult due to the required separation of heavier luggage pieces from the passenger during travel extremely large number of pieces being handled and the great distances being traveled in relatively short amounts of time. Recognized need for improvement in this area is supported by lost and mishandled luggage being a primary service complaint of airline passengers.
In an attempt to overcome the above set forth problems, the prior art includes numerous designs, apparatus and methods intended to increase efficiency in baggage handling and reduce problems associated with identification of individual luggage pieces from one another other than by manual observation and general description relating to size, color, etc.
The U.S. Pat. No. to Soltanoff, 3,752,312 is directed towards a label, method and system for automated baggage handling wherein the individual luggage pieces are wrapped by a heat shrinkable, encircling belt further including destination identifying indicia capable or structured for reading automatically as by an optical scanner used in combination with suitable electronic data processing equipment. While the disclosure of Soltanoff is certainly operable for the application intended, it does incorporate the heat treatment of the encircling belt for the purpose of shrinking the plastic material from which the belt is formed. It is contemplated that such an additional reinforcing or security step may be less than desirable for certain airline carriers or others associated with baggage handling, identification and transport.
Other structures, methods and apparatus relating to the identification and simplification of baggage handling are represented in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. to Ashley, 4,180,284; Ross, 4,042,171; Bloodworth, 1,367,531; and Singleton, 1,075,505. All of the inventions disclosed in the above set forth patents are intended to overcome certain recognized problems in the prior art. Even in light of these successive improvements in the prior art, there is a need to enhance the ability of luggage identification and handling, preferably through automation, which should have the effect of increasing efficiency of baggage identification, recognition and handling time especially during situations involving peak passenger loads which has become more prevelant with the advent of jumbo jet airplanes.
In addition to the above structures and methods, airlines presently use automatic laser sortation devices. However, such techniques are limited in that the systems being utilized can only sort baggage by city - destination rather than individual flights traveling to such city - destination. It is often desirable, however, to sort baggage by flight numbers especially in those instances when several flights leave for the same destination in a relatively short period of time. Sorting by flight number has not previously been possible since it is not practical to store pre-printed baggage identification tags for several hundred flight numbers at each agent's location. In addition to the above, flight numbers frequently change. Accordingly, airlines have been in the habit of pre-printing and storing tags for destination only. In a typically large station or base for a given air carrier, there may be 300 to 400 flights to a hundred city - destination.
To overcome the above set forth problems, some airlines have incorporated the use of small bar-code printers located near the agent's position to generate bar-coded tags wherein the code incorporates the flight number. Theoretically therefore, the tags and the attached luggage would be sortable through automated, optical scanning techniques by a flight number. However, the process of generating labels, referred to as "on demand" printing is costly due to high maintenance of the printers wherein as many as 50 or 60 of such printers are needed for a large station. Such printers are frequently considered to be of questionable reliability and the quality of the "on demand" generated bar-coded label is not as good as that available when the identification tags are pre-printed. Such reduction in quality frequently results in mishandling of baggage because of misreading the "on demand" printed tags.